Kremlin missile kills one individual and wounds 42 extra in Kharkiv

A Russian missile fired into an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, has killed one and wounded 42 more, amid calls from Volodymyr Zelensky for permission to directly hit Russian military strikes. 

The body of a 94-year-old was recovered from the ninth floor of the building, which suffered damage after the KAB-250 bomb with an UMPK module hit the building. 

Three children were among those injured, Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said, with other officials adding that residents may still be trapped underneath the rubble. 

Photos taken at the scene showed firefighters extinguishing flames from the top section of the building, with other emergency service workers taking civilians away from the area. 

Several elderly people, with serious injuries, were seen being led away from the building. 

Zelensky said in his nightly address this evening that three other guided bombs had struck villages in the Kharkiv, where population centres have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near the Russian border.

A Russian missile fired into an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, has killed one and wounded 42 more

Several elderly people, with serious injuries, were seen being led away from the building

Photos taken at the scene showed firefighters extinguishing flames from the top section of the building

Odesa was also targeted as part of a tit-for-tat drone conflict, with two people tragically dying in the port city today, officials confirmed. 

In his speech, Zelensky said Russia had also struck the Sumy and Donetsk regions on Sunday with guided bombs.

He said the Russian army carried out ‘at least 100 such air attacks’ daily.

Also Sunday, Russian shelling killed one person in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, local authorities said, as Moscow’s troops inched closer to the key logistics hub.

More than 20,000 people – almost half of its population – have fled the city since August, while Russian strikes over the past two weeks have cut off water and electricity to many of its remaining residents.

An injured local man tries to send a message with a mobile phone at the site of a damaged residential building after shelling in Kharkiv

A person sits down near the scene after a Russian aerial bomb struck a multi-story residential building in Kharkiv

A woman stands in front of residential building damaged as result of Russian shelling with guided aerial bomb on September 15, 2024 in Kharkiv,

‘Around 11:00 am (0800 GMT), the enemy shelled the western part of the city… Unfortunately, one person died,’ Pokrovsk’s military administration said on Telegram.

Russia has been advancing towards Pokrovsk for months, getting to within 10 kilometres (six miles) of its eastern outskirts, according to the local administration.

The city lies on the intersection of rail and road routes that supply Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front line and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.

Russian strikes damaged two overpasses in the city earlier this week, including one that connected Pokrovsk to the neighbouring town of Myrnograd, local media reported.

Other eastern cities such as Bakhmut and Mariupol suffered massive bombardment before falling to Russian forces.

Firefighters help a wounded person after Russia hit a high-rise building in Kharkiv with a KAB-250 bomb with an UMPK module in Kharkiv

Russia has denied intentionally targeting civilian populations

Russia has denied intentionally targeting civilian populations, but Zelensky said the latest set of attacks underscored the need for Ukraine’s Western partners to provide weapons and air defence systems and permission to use weaponry on targets deep inside Russia to save lives.

Zelensky called for rapid decisions on long-range strikes ‘in order to destroy Russian military aviation right where it is based. These are obvious, logical decisions.

‘Every Russian strike of this nature, every instance of Russian terror, like today in Kharkiv…this proves that there must be long-range capability and it must be sufficient.’

He said appropriate decisions were expected in the first instance from the United States, France, Germany and Italy, ‘those whose decisiveness can help save lives.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles.